Submerged marine habitat mapping at Cape Cod National Seashore: A post-hurricane Sandy study

Borrelli M, Fox SE, Shumchenia EJ, Kennedy CG, Oakley BA, Hubeny JB, Love H, Smith TL, Legare B, Mittermayr A, Giese GS. 2019. Submerged marine habitat mapping at Cape Cod National Seashore: A post-hurricane Sandy study. Natural Resource Report. NPS/NCBN/NRR—2019/1877. National Park Service. Fort Collins, Colorado

Storms are the primary drivers of coastal change, but documenting change in submerged coastal areas is difficult. Hurricane Sandy had a dramatic impact along coastal areas in proximity to landfall in late October 2012, and those impacts have been well-documented in terrestrial coastal settings. However, due to the lack of data on submerged marine habitats, similar subtidal impact studies have been limited. One of the motivations for this study was to provide park managers with a baseline inventory of submerged marine habitats, against which to measure change after future storm events and other natural and anthropogenic phenomena. This study, one of four contemporaneous studies, developed maps of submerged shallow water marine habitats in and around Cape Cod National Seashore and documented the methods of data collection, processing and analysis for the production of those maps. Data from a phase-measuring sidescan sonar, bottom grab samples, seismic reflection profiling, and sediment coring were all used to develop submerged marine habitat maps using the Coastal and Marine Ecological Classification Standard (CMECS). Vessel-based acoustic surveys (n = 76) were conducted in extreme shallow water across four embayments from 2014-2016. Sidescan sonar imagery covering 83.37 km2 was collected, and within that area, 49.53 km2 of co-located bathymetric data were collected with a mean depth of 4.00 m. Bottom grab samples (n = 476) to sample macroinvertebrates and sediments (along with other water column and habitat data) were collected, and these data were used along with the geophysical and coring data to develop final habitat maps using the CMECS framework.

Type
Published Report
Authors
Borrelli, Mark; Fox, Sophia; Shumchenia, Emily; Kennedy, Cristina; Oakley, Bryan; Hubeny, J; Love, Heath; Smith, Theresa; Legare, Bryan; Mittermayr, Agnes; Giese, Graham
Date of Issue
2019-03
Publisher
National Park Service
Units
CACO , NCBN , NRSS
Keywords
2259397, benthic grab samples, benthic habitats, CACO, Cape Cod National Seashore, CMECS, Coastal and Marine Ecological Classification Systems, Hurricane, Hurricane Sandy, Massachusetts, NCBN, Northeast Coastal and Barrier Network, Sandy, seafloor mapping, Seismic Reflection (Sub-Bottom) Profiling, Submerged marine habitat mapping, submerged resources, Vessel-based acoustic data

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